The confrontation between batter and pitcher has been the inspiration for numerous epic tales in baseball lore. Notably, in such confrontations, the pitcher usually wins. However, in professional baseball, a batter with a success rate of one hit out of every three times at bat (0.333 batting average) will likely be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
A batter's task is basically one of timing and the pitcher's task is to disrupt such timing. A quick review of exemplary timing that is associated with hitting a baseball provides insight to the challenges that batters face in this classic confrontation. First, a 90 mph fastball travels 60.5 feet (the distance between the pitcher and batter) in 0.46 seconds. Second, a swing requires on average 0.15 seconds, which gives the batter about 0.3 seconds to observe the pitch, process the observed information, and decide if and how to swing the bat. Third, if the pitcher has thrown a “breaking ball,” about one-half of the break occurs in the last 0.1 seconds.
To disrupt a batter's timing, a pitcher may vary several pitched ball parameters. The pitcher my throw a curve ball, a knuckle ball, a slider, a screw ball or a fast ball. The pitcher may combine such variety of pitched ball types with throwing a high ball, a low ball, an inside ball or an outside ball. In response to such diversity of possible pitched ball types, a batter must leverage every possible advantage in attempting to hit a baseball.
In the above described confrontation, the batter's main tool is, of course, the bat. To enhance a batter's chances of hitting a baseball in light of the above described variety of pitching tactics, a batter may wish to have access to a variety of bat designs. One tactic a batter may employ is to use bats having different weight distributions. For example, a batter may wish to use a bat having a particular weight distribution when bunting and a bat having a different weight distribution when attempting to hit a home run. Restated, a batter may wish have access to bats having a variety of weight distributions so that the batter can use a bat having a particular weight distribution that will most likely transfer maximum energy from the bat to the ball based on the batter's anticipated swing and the ball's anticipated trajectory. In addition, the batter may wish to have access to such a variety of bat weight distributions while maintaining a desired bat shape and a desired overall bat weight.
Baseball bats have a well known conventional bat shape consisting of a handle end and a barrel end wherein the barrel end has a larger diameter than the handle end. Traditional solid wood bats have been in use for years and offer little opportunity for varying the weight distribution of the bat without varying the bat shape.
Another type of bat is a laminated bat. As used in this patent, the term “lamination” simply refers to layers of material stacked on top of one another with adjacent layers bonded together with a bonding agent to create an object larger than each of the separate individual layers. Examples of laminated bat designs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,793,859 issued to Darling et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,669 issued to Smart and U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,179 issued to MacKay, Jr., and such disclosures are incorporated herein by these references for all purposes.